All season long, Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy said his team just needed a little longer to find a rhythm. It held true in the regular season as the Crimson Tide sorted out its lineup. It held true in the Southeastern Conference tournament as Alabama managed a run to the semifinals.

And on Sunday, Murphy’s analysis was proven right once again. An Ally Shipman swing and bat flip — though it was more of a bat spike on a second look — gave Alabama a lead in the top of the seventh inning.

The 1-0 win sent the Tide to the NCAA super regional, which takes place next weekend as the Crimson Tide got one step closer to its first national championship since 2012. It’s the seventh time in 18 years that Alabama made it to the second round, a welcome return after Stanford shocked Rhoads Stadium last year.

Playing without Montana Fouts, who warmed up during both games on Sunday, Alabama beat LIU on Friday, rallied in the middle innings against MTSU on Saturday and survived a winner-take-all game on Sunday afternoon.

It relied on the right arm of junior Jaala Torrence and a few standout performances at the plate. Torrence allowed no run across 14.2 innings across the weekend, delivering the first two seven-inning shutouts of her career.

MTSU won its opening game over Central Arkansas, 5-0, but fell to the Tide, 12-5, on Saturday. Behind pitcher Gretchen Mead, Middle Tennessee State beat Central Arkansas once again to make the finals. Mead faced the Tide for the first time on Sunday and allowed just five base runners in a 4-1 loss to force a winner-take-all contest.

They beat left-hander Lauren Esman, who was making her weekend debut in the circle. She struggled with the top of the lineup and Laura Mealer smashed her second home run in as many days. Meanwhile, the Alabama offense struggled with runners in scoring position. They had runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the fourth but just managed one run.

Both managers went with a new starter for game two and Torrence delivered a pitching duel along with Kamryn Carcich. They traded zeros on the scoreboard and yielded six base runners in the first five innings.

The wind grew stronger as the day went on and multiple balls driven high and deep died out at the warning track until Shipman’s blast sparked the crowd and Torrence’s career-high eighth strikeout led to a celebration.

Alabama will now play the winner of No. 12 Northwestern versus Miami (Ohio).